Temor secreto

Hidden Fear (1957)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

An American cop (John Payne) arrives in Denmark after his sister is arrested for murdering her boyfriend. It doesn't take long for the cop to realize that there's something more going on and that his sister wasn't behind it. One could argue that I watch way too many movies but what can I say? It's a passion of mine and something that I really love. I alway say my favorite genre is horror and that my favorite kind of movies are those with great acting (those two favorites really never go together) but I think I've seen more mystery, noir or crime films, whatever you want to call them. Each time one is on Turner Classic Movies, it get recorded and watched. Each time one gets thrown on Netflix, it gets watched. HIDDEN FEAR is exactly what you'd expect from a crime film as it features a tough good guy, an evil bad guy and the girl who is part good and part bad. HIDDEN FEAR is without question one of the worst films I've seen from the genre as it features one bad moment after another and in the end it never adds up to anything interesting. One could argue that you should never put logic into a film like this and I usually don't but I simply couldn't get around the fact that this American comes to Denmark and their police just start giving him all sorts of information about the case. This isn't believable for a number of reasons not to mention the fact that he's the brother to a murderer so why would they just release anything to him? Payne seems absolutely bored by everything going on as his performance has no energy and it's hard to tell that he's even alive. His line delivery makes it seem as if he's falling asleep and the supporting players, including Conrad Nagel, add very little. The entire plot is just one big bore and director Andre De Toth adds very little excitement or energy to the material.

Natalie Norwick is arrested for murder in Denmark. This makes her brother, cop John Payne fly over. It turns out to be not a simple murder, but a matter linked to a counterfeiting ring that is being controlled by Alexander Payne and Conrad Nagel -- the latter without a toupee.

It's one of those tough guy 'tec movies in which the hero -- and Miss Norwick -- is knocked out at least occasionally, and yet survives to win the day, amidst betrayal, car bombs, and such issues. Director Andre de Toth was clearly given a B movie script, and somehow stretched the budget to shoot in Denmark and somehow include a few interesting shots along the way. Payne does a decent job, yet as with so many of his leading roles, I am struck with the conviction that any of a dozen other actors could have done as much. He would not appear on the big screen again for more than a decade.

I haver never seen an American film noir shot in Danemark before. That's really the first time.

The story itself offers no great surprises. Payne plays an American cop who tries to clear his sister of a murder charge. He has to fight against counterfeiters. I must admit that we have already seen this before, a thousand times. Especially Payne who is as hard boiled as ever.

But it's a tough thriller, no boring at all with, at the end, a good chase through the country side around Copenhagen.

A rare Andre de Toth movie that deserves to be discovered.

There are some interesting shots, but how can you miss with such a rich city as a backdrop. Payne was okay but nothing near 99 River Street. The one thing that was most disappointing was the horrible sound and music. Dialog is impossible to hear at times, the ADR is terrible - even for an older movie and the music was incongruous to the picture a fair amount of the time.

Before deciding that television was a good career move and leaving feature films, John Payne did this last one Hidden Fear for which he got a trip to Copenhagen. I've heard of worse reasons for a movie and worse films that came from them. Hidden Fear will never be ranked in his top 10 nor of the top ten of Andre DeToth the director.

Payne plays a homicide cop who's in Copenhagen because his sister Natalie Norwick's got herself in a nice jackpot with the Danish police. She's accused of murdering her boyfriend who was a dancer/musician and something of a lowlife. Payne starts running his own investigation and it turns out that the boyfriend was trying to horn in on a counterfeiting scheme that Alexander Knox and Conrad Nagel are running.

Truth be told Payne's truculent attitude probably cut a few corners, but the Danish cops probably were well on the way toward learning the truth. For that reason I can't really rate this noir film very high. In fact it could have gotten another notch in the ratings had we some color cinematography of Copenhagen and the Danish countryside.

These kind of films were disappearing and Payne probably made a right choice when he left feature films.